Dollar store killings uncover a flaw in sex-offender registry

Aug. 5, 2013

Lavere Bryant, a convicted sex offender, is suspected of killing two people who worked at a Family Dollar in Dearborn. Officials failed to change information to indicate his prison release. / Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press

Lavere Bryant, 34, is led into the courtroom before being arraigned in front of Judge Sam Salamey at the 19th District Courthouse in Dearborn on July 24. / Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press

Lavere Bryant, 34, of Dearborn listens as charges against him are read during his arraignment in front of Judge Sam Salamey at the 19th District Courthouse in Dearborn on July 24. / Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press

The body of Brenna Machus, 20, an employee of the Dollar Store in Dearborn, was found in a patch of woods not far from her work.

Last month, Joseph Orlando, 20, a employee of the Family Dollar in Dearborn, was found dead. / Konkel family

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The Michigan Department of Corrections is studying ways to improve how the sex-offender registry is updated when an offender is released from prison after officials failed to change information that would have indicated a felon — now accused in two killings — was no longer incarcerated.

Lavere Bryant, a convicted sex offender released from prison in 2011 after serving time on an assault charge, is accused in the July killings of two Family Dollar store employees.

The Corrections Department is working with Michigan State Police “to create a way to improve and enhance this process through the use of technology,” said Russ Marlan, a department spokesman.

Karen Johnson, manager of the sex-offender registry unit, said what happened in Bryant’s case is rare. She said the State Police is working with the Corrections Department to see whether there is a way to make the process more efficient and prevent the mistake from happening again.

If the registry had been updated to show Bryant’s new address or indicate that he was homeless, police would have known he was no longer incarcerated and could have been looking for him after he failed to self-report to law enforcement, as required.

“We rely on the Department of Corrections to make those entries into the system so that we know someone has been released,” Johnson said.

Instead, Bryant remained free.

He landed a job as an assistant manager at a Family Dollar store in Inkster. Earlier this year, employees told the Free Press, Bryant was fired. Last month, authorities allege, he fatally shot 20-year-olds Brenna Machus and Joseph Orlando, both employees of the Family Dollar in Dearborn. Machus’ body was found days later in a wooded area in Dearborn.

Bryant is now facing his most serious charge to date: first-degree murder.

Crimes tied to sex

Court records show Bryant has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman and later, stabbing a prostitute with a butcher knife.

In March 1999, Bryant was accused of fondling a woman as she slept in a Detroit home, records show.

Bryant pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct and was given five years of probation, with his first year served in jail, and he was ordered to participate in a sex-offender therapy group, according to court records.

Two years later, Bryant was accused of violating his probation by assaulting a woman in Detroit.

According to court documents, the woman testified that she was walking along Joy Road about 3 a.m. Feb. 5, 2001, when Bryant drove up to her in a burgundy Crown Victoria. Homeless and working as a prostitute, the woman said she agreed to have sexual relations with Bryant for $20, but when he gave her only $2, she went to leave.

Bryant then pulled out a butcher knife, according to records.

The woman “testified that the defendant made several attempts to stab her and that they struggled in the car,” a court filing says. She “opined that the multiple coats she was wearing provided some protection from the defendant’s knife.”

According to court records, after the woman escaped, she ran to a friend’s home and realized she had been cut on the back of her neck — a wound that required nine staples.

A month after the attack, the woman saw Bryant at a gas station with the Crown Victoria, took down the license plate number and later identified him in a lineup, according to court records.

Bryant was sentenced to serve four to 10 years in prison on a charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm — and because of bad behavior while incarcerated, he served the length of it, officials have said.

Bryant said he had ineffective counsel, but the state Court of Appeals found there was no evidence his counsel was ineffective, records show. Bryant submitted a number of handwritten and typed court filings. In one, he wrote that while in prison, he began “self-education in criminal law.”

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During his arraignment last month in the killings of Machus and Orlando, Bryant asked for a copy of his warrant, asked the judge whether he could make comments away from the news media and said he wanted the court to note that he was “standing without counsel.”

Bryant is due back in court later this month for his preliminary examination. His relatives could not be reached for comment Friday.

Paperwork problem

Bryant was released March 12, 2011, from the Ionia Correctional Facility, where he transferred on March 8 from the prison in Marquette.

Corrections Department files show that a records official at the Marquette prison filled out Bryant’s discharge processing paperwork and noted he was a registered sex offender. Bryant did not provide an address and said he was homeless, records show.

Corrections officials have said the records office at the Ionia prison neglected to change Bryant’s address information on the registry.

On Friday, Marlan said, “both facilities knew he was required to comply with the sex-offender registry. The Ionia facility would have seen the paperwork from Marquette in the file.”

Corrections Department records show that an official with the Marquette prison records office sent an administrative message in February 2011 to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office and the Michigan State Police, alerting the agencies that Bryant would be released on March 12, 2011. The notification said Bryant refused to provide a discharge address.

“Prisoner has a history of serious assaultiveness and a history of sex offense,” the notification said.

Before Bryant was released, a records office official in Ionia contacted a Michigan State Police sergeant to notify her that Bryant was being discharged, is a sex offender and claimed to be homeless, records show.

Johnson said the sex-offender registry unit, which does not have contact with sex offenders, relies on the Corrections Department to make changes to the registry to ensure it is updated with accurate information. “If I have staff that take telephone calls and e-mails, and they start making changes in the registry, then how accurate is that information?” Johnson said.